


Home

by quantumoddity



Series: Widomauk Modern AU [13]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Honeymoon, M/M, mentions of caleb's past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:06:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22090786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumoddity/pseuds/quantumoddity
Summary: Caleb and Molly celebrate their honeymoon
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast
Series: Widomauk Modern AU [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1121760
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73





	Home

Caleb had been quiet ever since they’d gotten into the car.

Not his usual kind of quiet, his gentle, observing kind of quiet that simply came from having nothing he needed to say in the moment. The kind that meant there was very little he missed. The quiet he would sometimes punctuate by reaching over and entwining his fingers with Molly’s, no words needing to pass between them. His present, contented kind of quiet.

This quiet gave the impression that Caleb was somewhere else. He sat with his forehead pressed to the window, not seeming to care that it was rattling a deep rooted headache into skull, eyes fixed past the blurs of green trees and grey road. Seeing what, Molly didn’t know, but he was willing to guess.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” he asked, only once, though he’d been thinking it the whole trip.

They were pulled up in a gas station with a clashing sense of familiarity and complete alienation, with all the usual adverts and logos and brands you would see in Dwendalia but all in a foreign language. Molly’s poorly tuned, one man band suit of a car couldn’t get far without needing a refill and he’d already pushed it way past it’s comfort zone. He could hear de Rolo, who’d dragged said car back from death’s door numerous times, moaning in exasperated agony in the back of his mind. 

Face bathed in neon, gas prices tattooed in light across his cheeks, Caleb sighed softly and nodded.

“I promise, I am. It’s just…harder than I thought.”

Molly reached over, closing the gap between them with a hand on his shoulder, just lightly, “We can turn back any time…if it gets too much, I mean…”

Caleb’s left hand snaked up from inside his coat and settled on Molly’s, managing a tired little smile, a smile like someone partway through a long journey, still with far to go.

“I don’t think I can. But thank you.”

It had been Caleb’s idea to honeymoon in the Zemni Fields. Home, though Molly didn’t know if that was how he still thought about it.

Whatever he called it, the Zemni fields would always mean something to him, not entirely good and not entirely bad. A weird, dizzy mix of both. Which was why Molly was surprised when he’d suggested it as somewhere to have the vacation that would mark them starting their lives together.

Caleb had blushed and fidgeted under Molly’s startled gaze when he’d first said it, when they’d been sat at their usual table in the Blooming Grove, amongst the lists Molly had been keeping in his notebook clearly labelled ‘Wedding Shit’.

“I mean, it’s nice, it’s got forests, it would be cheap…” he mumbled, his expression one of ‘I know I just said something significant but I’m going to try and pretend I didn’t’.

“And it’s where you grew up,” Molly pointed out carefully, holding himself ready in case he needed to rocket across the table and hold Caleb, “And you’ve not been back in…well, since you left?”

“No…” Caleb sized his cookie like it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world, though he didn’t actually eat any of it, he just crumbled it between anxious fingers, “No, I’ve not been back since I left…uh, the school.”

Molly swallowed tightly. The school. The school that had been a front for an archmage to torture and abuse him, to take the dreams of magic he’d always harboured and turn them against him, to destroy his family. An archmage that was still in power.

An archmage Molly had daydreamed often about assassinating but he couldn’t think of a fool proof way to not get caught yet. One day.

“But you want to go back?” Molly promoted gently after a deep, steadying breath. He’d learned over time how to help Caleb through conversations like this. Building a path for him to follow, constructing a scaffolding and beckoning from the top.

“I do,” Caleb let the golden brown crumbs fall through the gaps in his fingers, “I don’t think I can go anywhere near Blumenthal…not yet. But somewhere in the fields, somewhere everyone speaks the language I do. Somewhere that feels a little like how I remember.”

“As long as you’re sure, we can do that,” Molly gently swept the crumbs into a little mountain and onto his saucer, licking off the ones that stuck to his fingertips, “I’d love to see it with you.”

Caleb gave him a little smile, one of those smiles that reminded Molly why he was marrying this man even when the planning drove him nuts. One of those smiles that would prompt him, in just a few short weeks, to decide he couldn’t stand not being his husband a moment longer, planning be damned.

“I guess…it’s where I want my new life to start too?”

Honeymooning when neither of them had two gold pieces to rub together had been an interesting concept, even after they blew off their actual wedding and settled for a civil ceremony and a group trip to Waffle House that didn’t end until 2am. Hence why they were driving the twenty hour trip to the Zemni Fields, taking turns sleeping fitfully in the passenger seat while the other drove and knocked back off brand energy drinks.

When they’d found themselves a cabin for rent online at a price comfortably within their budget, they hadn’t asked questions. But as Molly looked at it now, noting the strange way the roof sagged and the way the door didn’t seem to sit right in its frame, he wondered if maybe they should have at least asked _some_ questions.

“Well it…” Caleb paused, hoisting their bag further up his shoulder, “It reminds me of home?”

Molly chuckled, giving his arms a final stretch before marching up the porch, fumbling for the key. Even after he procured it, it took a good few shoves with his shoulder to actually get the door open.

Grinning, he opened up his arms, “Come on then.”

Caleb tilted his head adorably, “What?”

“I’m meant to carry you over the threshold, right?” Molly flashed him a wider smile, “Not like we’re five weeks late or anything…”

“Better late than never,” Caleb awkwardly clambered into his arms, hanging from his neck like a sloth who was terrified of being dropped. Molly had to snicker, his husband weighed about as much as a large handful of grapes, he needn’t have worried.

“Well then,” he put on a grand voice, one of announcement, “Welcome to your first and hopefully only honeymoon, Caleb Widogast!”

He reached over and flicked on the light with a flourish to complete his grand proclamation. For a split second, they were shown the dusty interior of a very cramped cabin, all oaken furniture with motheaten upholstery, a corner where some kind of moss was growing in, a huge swathe of wallpaper that had come away from the wall.

For a split second. Then there was a large pop and a shower of sparks and all of the lights went out.

Caleb clicked his fingers sharply, the sound much louder than it had any right to be. The noise called a leaping flame into being, immediately nestling in the carefully arranged crown of balled up road map, spreading and strengthening into a considerable blaze.

“Well done,” Molly applauded softly behind him as Caleb hurried back to the warmth of their blanket pile.

“We might never find our way home but at least we’ll be warm,” Caleb laughed, winding his arms around Molly, bringing him into his lap.

Molly chuckled, “I think I might be okay with never leaving…”

Caleb looked hopeful, like a worry he’d been nursing had finally fled, “So this wasn’t a horrible idea for a honeymoon? Even if we are freezing cold with no hot water and beds full of bugs?”

Molly grinned and gently reached up and pressed a finger to Caleb’s nose, “Look, I could be anywhere in the world and I’d be happy as long as I was with you.”

Caleb felt something hard in his throat and his bottom lip suddenly had a mind of its own, “Liebling, you know you can’t just say things like that to me…”

Molly laughed and cooed softly, reaching up to hiss him deeply. The firelight played off the two of them, sending a shadow version of them dancing up the wall. Smoothly, easily, Caleb pressed his back against the floor and Molly threw a leg over him.

Before it became inevitable and they forgot everything else, Molly gently stroked a strand of hair away from his husband’s light blue eyes and murmured, “Was it everything you wanted? Coming home?”

Caleb returned a gentle smile, the kind of smile he never would have worn back then, “Home? I brought it with me.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you could spare two seconds to leave a comment, I'd really appreciate!


End file.
